Summary

The article takes its point of departure in current suggestions stating that the idea of ‘commons’ could be a universal and normative guideline for how to organise a part of the interplay between nature and human activity. It is stated, that the concept in contemporary discourses has a widespread spectrum of connotations and is engaged for descriptive, prescriptive, and normative purposes. The content, character and meaning thus depend on context and dimensions in focus; the point is illustrated by means of the historical Danish commons. In a consecutive investigation of implicated concepts from social sciences (‘property rights’ being the starting point) it is similarly stated that implications cannot be determined ex ante. By means of elements from institutional economics and the sociology of space, suggestions for a conceptual framework are presented as basis for more detailed studies at a lower level of abstraction. Returned to Danish farming – but now in its contemporary settings – it is concluded that the framework of commons not adequately can be copied-and-pasted into present context due to the complex interconnectivity where local agriculture have boundless prerequisites and effects.